Guilty conscience led him to commit suicide

Ananda Jayasena, Retired Senior Supdt. of Police

The most glorious period of the CID could be termed to be between the late nineteen fifties and early sixties. Two important cases that the CID inquired into and obtained convictions in the Supreme Court were the 1956 S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike assassination case and the “Coup d’etat Case of 1962, staged by the higher ups of the Army, Navy and Police.

The accused in both cases appealed to the Privy Council against their convictions and some accused got mitigated sentences, whilst two accused were sentenced to gallows. Eventually, all accused suspects in the Coup Case got out due to a legal technicality.

DIG, CID at this time was S.A. Dissanayake, fondly called as “Jingle” by his peers. A pipe smoking silent man who was said to have the least number of friends. He had a brilliant team of investigators of the gazetted rank. To mention a few, John Attygalle, Elaric Abeygunawardena, S.K. Ayer, Simon Perera, Tyrell Goonetilleke and R.C. Thavarajah.

On April 1962, exactly on the 18th, a petition written two days back had been on the desk of DIG, CID. The sender’s name and address given in the petition had been Percy Samaranayake, “Suramya”, Kolamederiya, Bandaragama.

The petition contained two parts. (i) Finding of a foetus of a new born baby son and disposing it without a proper inquiry and not tracing the mother of the new born child and hiding same from courts, having obtained a large sum of money from the father of the girl.

Both allegations were levelled against the OIC Police, Bandaragama. His name with initials were mentioned in the petition. DIG, CID smelt a rat in this petition and the case was channelled to OIC Unit (i) A.M. Seneviratne to conduct a meticulous investigation, to select a team and to meet the DIG in his office at 2.00 p.m. on that very day.

OIC Unit (1) selected me for this inquiry and detailed PCC 3294 Fernando and 1808 Seneviratne and provided Peugeot 203 car, 1 SRI 2908 for this inquiry, and we all assembled in DIG CID’s room at 1.55 p.m. as requested earlier.

At sharp 2.00 p.m. OIC Unit (1) produced the three of us before DIG, CID at his office, and he was smoking his pipe, and the aroma of his amphora tobacco had filled the room. It was said that the DIG was in his best of moods, when he has the pipe in his mouth, dangling between the lips.

DIG addressed us and told that he knew the present ASP Panadura, under whose purview the Bandaragama Police area came and he will never ever, shirk responsibility, but for us to get to the bottom of this case and to keep off from Bandaragama Police, till some credible information is received and to keep in touch with OIC Unit (1) of the CID.

We came to Panadura by car and parked the car at my friend’s house at Bolgoda. He was one, Somapala Happuarachchi and left to Bandaragama, by bus which was only four miles away. I dropped PC 1808 at Bandaragama town and told him to meet me at 6.30 p.m. at Bolgoda, where our car was parked. PC 3924 Fernando and I went to Kolamediriya in search of Percy Samaranayake.

At Kolamediriya I met one A.D. Hematilaka, who was a resident of Kolamediriya. A few weeks back, he was attached to the Income Tax Department in the 5th Floor, CID building, now a clerical hand in the DRO’s Office, Horana. He said that he will go to office, and apply for leave and come to assist me in this inquiry, and as promised he reappeared at 12.30 p.m. at the Bandaragama Post Office. Hematilaka said that he is a native of Bandaragama and the hospital is located at the Bandaragama junction and there is a separate ward for the maternity cases, and when children die at birth, they are normally buried in the hospital compound and the dead bodies are never taken to their homes.

Also. he said that Sharmila Perera, mentioned in the petition is a very respected girl, daughter of an advocate from Bandaragama and she was in her very early twenties and was a boarder in a prestigious girls school in Colombo and her paternal uncle who is an Engineer in England had made arrangements to enter her to a Medical College there and she had gone to the British High Commission in Colombo in a very recent occasion for an interview to enter the UK.

Hematilaka further told us that Advocate Sarath Welikele is from a respectable family in Bandaragama and had got married to a Sinhalese school teacher from Kuruwita, with lots of money and no family background. Her brother is one Koolman Perera from Kuruwita who was fairly rich and had married to a woman from Kuruwita and has a young son aged about 26 years, a school dropout, now idling at home and sometimes gallivanting on a speed twin Motor Cycle. He was one Sunil Perera.

PC 1808 Senaratne met me and PC 3524 Fernando at Bolgoda around 6.30 p.m. and he told me that Bandaragama Police had conducted an investigation into this case on an around 18th April. I told him to go to Police Headquarters in the following morning and meet the OIC at IG’s information room, and go through the telephone register and to get a copy of this message given to I.R. from Bandaragama Police on or around April 18, 1964 and I left for Kuruwita with PC Fernando in the car.

We made confidential inquiries about Koolman Perera and his family. He was a wealthy uneducated man living with his wife Caroline. He has a sister, also a Sinhalese school teacher, who was given in marriage to advocate Sarath Welikele with a big dowry. Koolman had one son, Sunil Perera, who was put into a Colombo school, became a ruin and a rake, and now 26 years, a sort of a bad character. He was interested in marrying Sarath Welikele’s daughter, but the advocate has point blankly refused this proposal, though his wife was agreeable as the property might to go out of the family. This boy, Sunil had been ordered out of Sarath Welikele’s house.

PC 1808 Seneviratne had brought a copy of the message received in Police Headquarters from the Bandaragama Police. With regard to the finding of the day-old dead body, the message read as follows:

From OIC Police, Bandaragama to Information Room Police Head Quarters.

Finding of a day old male dead body. Date 20/04/62. Time: 9.20 a.m.

“On April 18, 1962 around 9.00 hrs, a day-old male dead body was found close to the Horana-Panadura road in close proximity to Bandaragama Maternity Home. This body had been seen by a milkman named Saralis Perera. Body was brought to Bandaragama Police Station. Message was given to ASP Panadura and SP Police Headquarters D.C. de Silva, J.P.U.M. held the inquest and on his order the dead body of the infant was brought to JMO’s office, Colombo and Dr. Chandra Amarasekera, DJMO held the post-mortem examination of the body, and he gave his verdict as ‘death due to natural causes’ - and the child had been still born 12-24 hrs previously, and as there was no claimant, the body was buried at Government expenses - Magistrate Panadura was informed accordingly.”

On the face of this message, we knew that no suppression of a crime had taken place.

Inquiries made by PC 1808 Senaratne in Bandaragama had found that a woman named Seelawathie Rodrigo of Atalugama Bandaragama had given birth to a still born child, on April 18, 1962 at Bandaragama hospital, and as the child was dead the mother did not want to take it home. Hence on approval of the Medical Officer, the dead body had been buried in the hospital compound, as this had been the practice and the Hospital labourer Lakman Perera had admitted that he buried the dead body.

Hematileke of Kolamediriya rang me up and informed that the sender of the petition to the DIG CID was traced, and he was one Ajith Bandara of Weediyagode, Bandaragama, who happened to be a good friend and an earlier classmate of Sunil Perera, son of Koolman Perera of Kuruwita, who visits Bandaragama town very often.

I sent P.CC Senaratne and PC Fernando in the CID car and Ajith Bandara who was in the town at Bandaragama was arrested and whisked away to the CID Office, where he spilt the beans.

To be continued